


Regarding A Fire In The Archives

by Phoenixgriffin260



Category: Archivistbot (blog)
Genre: Arson, Fire, Gen, Implied Relationships, Not Beta Read, Statement Fic (Archivistbot)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26110336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenixgriffin260/pseuds/Phoenixgriffin260
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8





	Regarding A Fire In The Archives

**ARCHIVIST**

Statement of.... [DISTORTED]  **[ ~~redacted~~ ]** regarding a...  _ fire _ in the Archives.    
[SOUNDS OF PAPER RUSTLING] Taken the 20th of February, 2020, recorded the 27th of May, 2020.

**ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)**   
[SLIGHTLY DISTORTED] There wasn’t anything wrong with the day, but I suppose that’s why it  _ did _ go wrong in the end- somebody new was supposed to arrive to the Archives, and-    
[SUBTLE LAUGHTER, STILL DISTORTED] Well, you know how we all get about strangers, especially when nobody knows them beforehand.    
  
Like.. okay, sure, but usually you get roped into it by somebody else, right? I mean, that’s how those two who live with us- fuck, I’ve forgot their names but you’ll know who I’m on about, they’re, uh… not the most talkative, especially with all those letters that come in for us from god-knows-where, and one of them is practically the other’s guard-dog- shit, that’s.. Not related to what, y’know, actually happened.   
[AUDIBLE INHALE] Sorry. 

But, right, we all got the announcement through fucking email of all things, which has half of us on edge anyway because we all have our phones linked to the announcement system, which I guess is.. I have no idea. We had to do it, for some reason, and, like, the  _ audacity _ of that- anyway, uh, the email said absolutely jack shit about this guy, only that his name was Alec Macmillian-    
  
[A SINGULAR, BITTER LAUGH] Yeah, I see that expression a lot. To be fair, we used to have a guy with the last-name  _ Ratner, _ who collected  _ rats. _ It’s like some massive cosmic joke on us, I guess. 

Anyway, we’re all dreading the day this guy actually, like, turns up, because  _ once again  _ these emails continue to be the _ least useful  _ thing the Archives has, and-    
[FABRIC RUSTLING] That’s  _ clearly  _ saying something. 

One of the others- god, please don’t ask me for a name, I don’t bother- said something about how it’s really suspicious that there was literally no information on it, and this started some long-winded chinwag between some of the others; is it rude to call them ‘others’?- some of  _ my fellow coworkers _ , but… 

You know how when you get scared it feels like everything gets colder? Imagine that but the opposite, it was like somebody just-- like the heating suddenly decided that it was gonna work  _ now,  _ instead of all the days it was supposed to work, and there was some kind of odd off-beat knocking at the door-? 

I can’t... actually remember. Not- not the contents, but the rhythm, right? And, the arguing, like, suddenly died, took the wrong u-turn somewhere or something, and we all shared a look of, like,  _ absolute terror,  _ because this had to be the weirdo we were just chatting about, just as they turned up to the actual place where they were supposed to work, and we were just being as fuck-wild as we usually were- 

God, and when the guy walks in? He’s like- absolutely  _ giant,  _ he had to fucking duck through the door, and he  _ smiles  _ at us like he  _ knows  _ we’re all just stood there in fear for what he’s goin’ to think of us, but he just... chuckles, low in his throat, and offers us a hand which definitely shouldn’t be as warm as it is, y’know? 

[TAPPING AGAINST A WOODEN COUNTER] It was like he had shoved his hands in some kind of oven or something, managed to not cook his hands in the process, and then turned up for work just in time for the heat to still be clinging to him. 

I- I think… somehow, some of his skin like… clung to  _ us  _ too, like when you get blisters or rashes and the heat just… burns the top layer of skin off, into some kind of… god, I don’t- like, adhesive, maybe? 

A- and, like, the worst thing is  _ I can’t remember anything else,  _ Archivist- all I remember is, that,  _ maybe,  _ he was ginger- but he was  _ tall,  _ right? Like, Mx. Grice is tall, but  _ Alec?  _ At least a good foot taller, but that’s where my memory suddenly stops- just, the image of him bowed over, hand offered towards us like some kind of  _ dealmaker,  _ and- and- 

[INCREASED VOLUME] For all I know, he could’ve been! The fire started almost as soon as he set foot in the next room- like, god, the- the skin, it _stuck,_ like- like wax, dry and vaguely sticky against the metal, but-

[SHARP INHALE] The- the- you know when the slaughterhouse overfills, and they have to burn it down?- like- it smelt just like that, but with- with some kind of… chemical undertone, right? And- and then, just, the fucking door-  _ melts,  _ caves in, and it’s  _ acrid,  _ smoke that isn’t smoke, it’s too much and too little and too light to be from a fire, right?- and, an- people are  _ screaming,  _ there’s  _ yelling _ , and- and, somewhere, in all the chaos, somebody hisses out an order, I think? 

There’s talk of ‘getting him back’, all muffled under the- the crackling of the fire, y’know, because it- the arson, the fire,  _ Alec,  _ was loud- and, and- we, uh, we lost a lot of old statements, too- which,  _ fuck-  _ but, I, uh, I can’t… focus on that. 

[DISTORTED] They called him Alec Macmillian, Archivist- why- why, is this… familiar? I know- I swear to god I don’t know him, not until the fire, not until all of that- I  _ know  _ I don’t know him! But- 

**ARCHIVIST**   
[MILDLY ANNOYED] The rest of the paper is burnt. Not horrendously, but enough. 


End file.
